Current and retired town and school employees are looking at a 5 percent increase in health insurance premiums, which will translate into a $5 to $8 a month bump, according to officials with the Somerset Health Plan Group Board.

SOMERSET — Current and retired town and school employees are looking at a 5 percent increase in health insurance premiums, which will translate into a $5 to $8 a month bump, according to officials with the Somerset Health Plan Group Board.

The increase recommended for fiscal 2015, to be implemented during the open enrollment period usually held in May and June, was about half what Group Benefit Services, the town’s consultant, recommended, according to Richard Peirce, who represents the regional school district, and Christine Marum, assistant treasurer/health insurance coordinator, who was a health plan board member until recently.

They said the health coverage program that includes Berkley is self-insured. Peirce said GBS reported a deficit between claims and revenues of approximately $200,000 so far this year.

However, the longstanding trust fund used to offset deficits has not been audited in the past two years, Peirce and Town Administrator Dennis Luttrell said.

A highly charged board meeting on March 13, held jointly with the Health Insurance Advisory Committee, was attended by dozens of retirees. They were concerned about the possibility the town would adopt a Medex plan to save funds while increasing prescription co-payments, according to officials.

The health board chose not to select that option.

After that meeting, Marum, who was attending her second session, resigned from the eight-member panel.

“I do not wish to participate as a voting member or representative of the group due to its lack of organization and professionalism,” she wrote in a March 27 letter to selectmen Chairman Donald Setters, who chaired part of that meeting.

Marum said she felt “humiliated” when officials asked why she didn’t know important financial information — both at the March 13 meeting and the March 24 special Town Meeting.

She noted that Selectman Scott Lebeau brought up the issue during a discussion of warrant articles. Marum said she felt Lebeau “threw me under the bus.”

She claimed there were “rumors” before the group insurance meeting that retirees’ Medex premiums could increase 50 percent, and she received at least 20 phone calls about it.

Marum and Luttrell had different versions of what happened at the March 13 meeting.

Marum said Luttrell told her they were probably going to raise the rates, but that she felt the level of increases retirees believed could happen was unfounded.

“I know he let it happen. He didn’t stop it. To me, it’s unprofessional. It should have been stopped right there,” Marum said.

“The people were very vocal and unhappy with her because she would not give them the balance of the trust fund,” Luttrell said.

Marum said that balance was discussed a couple of days earlier at a department head meeting.

Page 2 of 3 - According to officials, the balance of the self-insured health fund is roughly $4 million, which Peirce called “a guesstimate.” However, officials don’t have confidence in that figure, which could change because the fund has not been ready for auditing for two years, Peirce said.

He therefore requested the auditors attend the next meeting, scheduled for April 15 at 3 p.m. at Town Hall.

Marum said the amount in the trust fund should not have been the focus of the meeting, while Luttrell questioned why she didn’t have the figure.

She said she had discussed with GBS representative Ginger Hastings how the consultant would make its recommendation for premium increases.

She said Hastings told her it would be based on claims, not on the trust fund, although that fund helps offset shortages.

Marum claimed she relayed that information to Luttrell after he asked for it. Reportedly, an amount in excess of $500,000 for the trust fund had not been posted properly in the trust fund ledger by Treasurer Kathleen Trafka.

Marum said Luttrell inquired if those unaccounted-for funds would be factored into premiums for the recommended increase.

“He was making it look like we don’t have the amount because our books (in the treasurer’s office) weren’t reconciled,” Marum said.

Peirce said the availability of millions of dollars in the trust fund helps them keep the premium increase at 5 percent, and not 10 percent as recommended. Premiums have not been increased in the past couple of years.

“We discussed the fact, if there was no trust fund, I believe the premiums would have to go up more,” Peirce said. He said he advocated finding out at the next meeting why the fund had not been audited, and making sure it would be done expediently.

On Marum’s resignation and response, Peirce brought up the uncertain amount in the trust fund, and said, “I think the comments about the need for definite numbers in the trust fund she took personally, and they were not directed personally, I don’t believe.”

Although Luttrell and Lebeau, in different venues, brought up Marum’s not knowing the amount in the health insurance trust fund, Peirce maintained, “It was not directed at her.”

Luttrell, more emphatically, said, “She didn’t want to disclose that number, and I think the reason she said that was because she didn’t have that number.”

He said Trafka, who attended the meeting, “didn’t say anything.”

Marum said she handles a variety of insurance processes in her full-time job, including employee premiums and enrollment. The town pays 75 percent of health insurance costs and employees pay 25 percent.

Page 3 of 3 - “I will continue (to) support the group and our subscribers to the best of my ability as the health care coordinator during open enrollment,” Marum said in a brief letter announcing her resignation from the insurance group.